[...] during the couple of months after the
Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, monitoring capabilities of the network could have
been affected by the large amount of radioxenon released by the accident. The
impact of Fukushima radioxenon releases on the worldwide Xe-133 background must
also be investigated. [...]

The maps below show the
activity concentration of Xe-133 at ground-level on March 31, 2011 (top) and May 10,
2011 (bottom)

While the Japanese tsunami of March 2011 was
devastating in its own right, the long term health consequences because of the
damage to the nuclear reactor at Fukushima Daiichi are also of serious concern.
[...]

Jan Beyea, from the US expert consulting service
Consulting in the Public Interest, together with fellow colleagues has been
analysing previous calculations of the subsequent nuclear accident in Japan,
and believes that the number of predicted future mortalities from cancer is
higher than originally predicted. [...] the mid-range, predicted number of
future mortalities from cancer is closer to 1000 than the 125 figure calculated
without considering long-term groundshine [gamma radiation emitted from
radioactive materials deposited on the ground].’ [...]

Lynn Anspaugh, from the University of Utah, US,
who works in the field of radiology and reconstructing radiation doses and who
analysed the Chernobyl accident, agrees that Beyea’s research points out
several inaccuracies in the previous work. However, he feels that the real
question this work raises regards the future of nuclear power itself. [...]

President George W. Bush is remembered largely for his role in curbing
civil liberties in the name of his "war on terror." But it's
President Obama who signed the 2012 NDAA, including its clause allowing for
indefinite detention without trial for terrorism suspects. Obama
promised he would "interpret them to avoid the constitutional
conflict" — leaving us adrift if and when the next administration chooses
to interpret them otherwise. Another law of concern is the National Defense
Resources Preparedness Executive Order that Obama issued in March 2012. That
order authorizes the President, "in the event of a potential threat to the
security of the United States, to take actions necessary to ensure the
availability of adequate resources and production capability, including
services and critical technology, for national defense requirements."

The collapse of our oceans could compromise life itself. In a haunting
article in Mother Jones reporter Julia Whitty paints a
tenuous seascape — overfished, acidified, warming — and describes how the
destruction of the ocean's complex ecosystems jeopardizes the entire planet,
not just the 70 percent that is water. Whitty compares ocean acidification,
caused by global warming, to acidification that was one of the causes of the
"Great Dying," a mass extinction 252 million years ago. Life on earth
took 30 million years to recover. In a more hopeful story, a study of 14
protected and 18 non-protected ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea showed
dangerous levels of biomass depletion. But it also showed that the marine
reserves were well-enforced, with five to 10 times larger fish populations than
in unprotected areas. This encourages establishment and maintenance of more
reserves.

A plume of toxic fallout floated to the US after Japan's tragic Fukushima
nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011. The US Environmental Protection Agency
found radiation levels in air, water, and milk that were hundreds of times
higher than normal across the United States. One month later, the EPA announced
that radiation levels had declined, and they would cease testing. But after
making a Freedom of Information Act request, journalist Lucas Hixson published
emails revealing that on March 24, 2011, the task of collecting nuclear data
had been handed off from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Nuclear
Energy Institute, a nuclear industry lobbying group. And in one study that got
little attention, scientists Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman found
that in the period following the Fukushima meltdowns, 14,000 more deaths than
average were reported in the US, mostly among infants.

We know that FBI agents go into communities such as mosques, both undercover
and in the guise of building relationships, quietly gathering information about
individuals. This is part of an approach to finding what the FBI now considers
the most likely kind of terrorists, "lone wolves." Its strategy:
"seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot
given the means and the opportunity. And then, in case after case, the
government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity," writes Mother
Jones journalist Trevor Aaronson. 508 cases classified as terrorism-related
have come before the US Department of Justice since the 9/11 terrorist attacks
of 2001. In 243 of these cases, an informant was involved; in 49 cases,
an informant actually led the plot. And "with three exceptions,
all of the high-profile domestic terror plots of the last decade were actually
FBI stings."

The Federal Reserve, the US's quasi-private central bank, was audited for
the first time in its history this year. The audit report states, "From
late 2007 through mid-2010, Reserve Banks provided more than a trillion dollars
... in emergency loans to the financial sector." These loans had
significantly less interest and fewer conditions than the high-profile TARP
bailouts, and were rife with conflicts of internet. The audit was
restricted to Federal Reserve lending during the financial crisis. On July 25,
2012, a bill to audit the Fed again, with fewer limitations, authored by Rep.
Ron Paul, passed the House of Representatives. HR459 was expected to die in the
Senate, but the movement behind Paul and his calls to hold the Fed accountable,
or abolish it altogether, seem to be growing.

A landmark study by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich
hardly registered a blip on the media radar screen. The Swiss
researchers found that, of 43,060 transnational companies, 147 control 40
percent of total global wealth. The researchers also built a model
visually demonstrating how the connections between companies — what it calls
the "super entity" — works. Some have criticized the study, saying
control of assets doesn't equate to ownership. True, but as we clearly saw in
the 2008 financial collapse, corporations are capable of mismanaging assets in
their control to the detriment of their actual owners. And a largely
unregulated super entity like this is vulnerable to global collapse.

The corporate media barely mentioned the UN declaring 2012 to be the
International Year of the Cooperative, based on the coop business model's
stunning growth. The UN found that, in 2012, one billion people worldwide are
coop member-owners, or one in five adults over the age of 15. The largest is
Spain's Mondragon Corporation, with over 80,000 member-owners. The UN
predicts that by 2025, worker-owned coops will be the world's fastest growing
business model. Worker-owned cooperatives provide for equitable distribution
of wealth and, just maybe, a brighter future for our planet.

In January 2012, the BBC "revealed" how British Special
Forces agents joined and "blended in" with rebels in Libya to help
topple dictator Muammar Gadaffi, a story that alternative media
sources had reported a year earlier. NATO admits to bombing a pipe factory in
the Libyan city of Brega that was key to the water supply system that brought
tap water to 70 percent of Libyans, saying that Gadaffi was storing weapons in
the factory. Background knowledge and historical context confirming Al-Qaeda and
Western involvement in the destabilization of the Gadaffi regime are essential
for making sense of corporate news narratives depicting the Libyan operation as
a popular "uprising."

On its website, the UNICOR manufacturing corporation proudly proclaims
that its products are "made in America." That's true, but they're
made in places in the US where labor laws don't apply, with workers
often paid just 23 cents an hour to be exposed to toxic materials with no legal
recourse. These places are US prisons. The majority of products
manufactured by inmates are contracted to the Department of Defense. Inmates
make complex parts for missile systems, battleship anti-aircraft guns, and landmine
sweepers, as well as night-vision goggles, body army, and camouflage uniforms.
Of course, this is happening in the context of record high imprisonment in the
US, where grossly disproportionate numbers of African Americans and Latinos are
imprisoned, and can't vote even after they're freed. This system of slavery,
like that which existed in this country before the Civil War, is also racist,
as more than 60 percent of US prisoners are people of color.

In March 2012, President Obama signed into law HR 347, the Federal
Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act. The law specifies as criminal
offenses the acts of entering or remaining in areas defined as “restricted.”
Although pundits have debated to what extent the new law restricts First
Amendment rights or criminalizes Occupy protests, it does make it
easier for the Secret Service to overuse or misuse existing laws to arrest
lawful protesters by lowering the requirement of intent in the
prosecution of criminal activity.

The net worth of the members of Congress continues to rise regardless of
the economic recession. An analysis of financial disclosure forms, using the
minimum valuation of assets, showed that members of the House and Senate in
2010 had a collective net worth of $2.04 billion, a $390 million increase from
the $1.65 billion held in 2008. Disclosure forms do not include
non-income-producing assets.

12. US Joins Forces with al-Qaeda in Syria

The US, Britain, France, and some conservative Arab allies have funded and
armed the Syrian rebellion from its start in 2011. In fact, the US has been
funding groups against Bashar al-Assad since the mid-1990s. However, the
anti-Assad ranks include members of al-Qaeda, Hamas, and other groups that the
United States lists as terrorist organizations.

13. Education “Reform” a Trojan Horse for Privatization

Public education is the target of a well-coordinated, well-funded campaign
to privatize as many schools as possible, particularly in cities. This campaign
claims it wants great teachers in every classroom, but its rhetoric demoralizes
teachers, reduces the status of the education profession, and champions
standardized tests that perpetuate social inequality. The driving logic for
such reform is profits.

14. Who Are the Top 1 Percent and How Do They Earn a Living?

The richest 1 percent of the country now owns more than 40 percent of the
wealth and takes home nearly a quarter of national income. Evidence based on
tax returns indicates that this superelite 1 percent consists of nonfinancial
executives, financial professionals, and members of the legal, real estate, and
medical professions. While the 99 percent deal with the direct consequences of
that crisis, the 1 percent increasingly have left behind deteriorating
neighborhoods in favor of wealthy enclaves, further isolating themselves.

15. Dangers of Everyday Technology

Recent research raises compelling concerns about two commonplace
technologies, cellular phones and microwave ovens. Heavy, long-term exposure to
cell phone radiation increases risks for certain types of cancer, including
leukemia, and in males impairs sperm production. Prenatal exposure to cell
phone radiation has been shown to produce blood-brain barrier leakage, and
brain, liver, and eye damage. The microwave radiation that heats food also
creates free radicals that can become carcinogenic. Most studies indicating
minimal or no health risks are, in fact, industry-sponsored.

16. Sexual Violence Against Women Soldiers on the Rise and Under
Wraps

The 2005 death of US Army Private LaVena Johnson was officially ruled
suicide by the Dept. of Defense. Johnson’s autopsy revealed wounds inconsistent
with suicide, including chemical burns that many believe were intended to
destroy DNA evidence of rape. The Pentagon has tried to intimidate reporters
working on stories about her. At least twenty other female soldiers have died
under suspicious circumstances. According to the Department of Defense, in
2010, there were 3,158 total reports of sexual assault in the military. The DOD
estimates that this number represents only 13.5 percent of the actual assaults.

17. Students Crushed By One Trillion Dollars in Student Loans

In April 2012, US student loan debt topped one trillion dollars, more than
credit card debt. Although corporate media dutifully reported this milestone,
they underplayed its significance and ignored one promising solution. Student
loan debt is the only form of consumer loan debt that has increased
substantially since 2008. The threat of massive student loan defaults requiring
another taxpayer bailout is a systemic risk as serious as the bank failures
that brought the US economy to the brink of collapse in 2008.

18. Palestinian Women Prisoners Shackled during Childbirth

Female Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons are treated inhumanely and
often denied medical care, and legal representation, and are forced to live in
squalid conditions. The conditions and violations faced by women in Israeli
jails need to be addressed from a gender perspective, according to CEDAW, the
United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

19. New York Police Plant Drugs on Innocent People to Meet Arrest
Quotas

A host of stories document how the New York Police Department operates
outside the very laws it is charged with enforcing. In October 2011, a former
NYPD narcotics detective testified that he regularly saw police plant drugs on
innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas. The NYPD’s controversial “stop
and frisk” program has invested seventy-five million dollars to arrest suspects
for possessing minimal amounts of marijuana. Each arrest costs approximately
$1,000 to $2,000.

20. Stealing From Public Education to Feed the Prison-Industrial
Complex

A systemic recasting of education priorities gives official structure and
permanence to a preexisting underclass comprised largely of poor people of
color. The rise of corporate-backed charter schools and privatized prisons
cannot be understood apart from the record closures of public schools across the
country.

The US Postal Service has been under constant assault for years from
conservative Republicans who aim to eviscerate the strongest union in the
country. Under a 2006 postal act, USPS must fully fund retiree health benefits
for future retirees—including the retirement packages of employees not even
born yet. No other organization, public or private, has to pre-fund 100 percent
of its future health benefits. Thus, the post office’s oft-reported
nine-billion-dollar deficit is largely a result of government-imposed
overpayments.

22. Wachovia Bank Laundered Money for Latin American Drug Cartels

Between 2004 and 2007, Wachovia Bank handled funds totaling $378.4 billion
for Mexican currency-exchange houses acting on behalf of drug cartels. The
transactions amount to the largest violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, an
anti-money-laundering law, in US history. This case is not exceptional;
Wachovia is just one of several US and European banks that drug cartels have
used to launder money.

23. US Covers up Afghan Massacre

Although the March 2012 massacre of sixteen unarmed Afghan civilians, nine
of whom were children, received a great deal of news coverage, independent news
sources have focused on whether one US solider acting alone—as US officials
have insisted—or multiple US soldiers—as Afghan witnesses and Afghan President
Hamid Karzai contend—bear direct responsibility for the killings.

24. Alabama Farmers Look to Replace Migrants with Prisoners

Alabama’s expansive anti-immigrant law, HB56, has been so economically
devastating that farmers in the state sought legislation to force hard labor on
prison inmates eligible for work release programs, to “help farms fill the gap
and find sufficient labor.” The state’s Department of Corrections opposed the
legislation, noting that its approximately 2,000 prisoners eligible for work
release already have jobs, and that “the prison system isn’t the solution to
worker shortages caused by the law.”

25. Evidence Points to Guantánamo Dryboarding

In June 2006, three Guantánamo prisoners were found dead in their cells,
hanging from what appeared to be makeshift nooses. Although the Department of
Defense declared the deaths suicides, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service
(NCIS) inquiry found evidence inconsistent with suicide—including the fact that
the prisoners’ hands were bound behind their backs. The NCIS evidence suggests
that the prisoners died from lethal interrogations that included dryboarding, a
technique using controlled suffocation.

Note: Project Censored also recognizes the importance of
defining and protecting the “Commons” as essential to a meaningful future. The
Media Freedom Foundation, which includes the board that oversees Project
Censored, has created another site for this purpose: Fair Share of the Common
Heritage. See their inspiring and informative website at http://www.fairsharecommonheritage.org.

The number of
unemployed workers worldwide has boomed by 28 million people in the five years
since the global financial crisis began, leaving 197 million people without
jobs last year, according to a new report.
The numbers show a “crisis in labour markets of both advanced economies and
developing economies,” according to new data from the International Labour
Organization.
In 2012 alone, 4 million people joined the unemployment ranks. The figure
will swell by another 5.1 million workers this year to 202 million unemployed
job seekers, soaring past the all-time record of 199 million jobless people in
2009.

UPDATE - The chart above has been updated to include data
for December, showing the true CPI at just under 10%.
Takes 2 seconds to see the truth - From Shadow Government Stats.Source - Shadow Stats
The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here reflects the CPI as if it were
calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. In general terms,
methodological shifts in government reporting have depressed reported
inflation, moving the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost
of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living. Further
definition is provided in our CPI Glossary.

Why Is Germany Demanding 300 Tons of Gold from the U.S. and 374
Tons from France?

The German’s are demanding that the U.S. return all of the 374 tons of gold
held by the Bank of France, and 300 tons of the 1500 tons of bullion held by
the New York Federal Reserve.
Some say that Germany is only demanding repatriation of its gold due to internal
political pressures, and that no other countries will do so.
But Pimco co-CEO El Erian says:

In the first instance, it could translate into
pressures on other countries to also repatriate part of their gold holdings.
After all, if you can safely store your gold at home —
a big if for some countries — no government would wish to be seen as one of the
last to outsource all of this activity to foreign central banks.

Ecuador’s government wants the nation’s
banks to repatriate about one third of their foreign holdings to support
national growth, the head of the country’s tax agency said.

Carlos Carrasco, director of the tax agency known
as the SRI, said today that Ecuador’s lenders could repatriate
about $1.7 billion and still fulfill obligations to international clients.
Carrasco spoke at a congressional hearing in Quito on a government proposal to
raise taxes on banks to finance cash subsidies to
the South American nation’s poor.

(Forbes notes that Iran and Libya have recently
repatriated their gold as well).
The Telegraph’s lead economics writer – Ambrose Evans Pritchard – argues
that the German repatriation demand shows that we’re switching to a de facto gold standard:

Central banks around the world bought more
bullion last year in terms of tonnage than at any time in almost half a
century.

They added a net 536 tonnes in 2012 as they
diversified fresh reserves away from the four fiat suspects: dollar, euro,
sterling, and yen.

The Washington Accord, where Britain, Spain,
Holland, South Africa, Switzerland, and others sold a chunk of their gold each
year, already seems another era – the Gordon Brown era, you might call it.

That was the illusionary period when investors
thought the euro would take its place as the twin pillar of a new G2
condominium alongside the dollar. That hope has faded. Central bank holdings of
euro bonds have fallen back to 26pc, where they were almost a decade ago.

Neither the euro nor the dollar can inspire full
confidence, although for different reasons. EMU is a dysfunctional construct,
covering two incompatible economies, prone to lurching from crisis to crisis,
without a unified treasury to back it up. The dollar stands on a pyramid of debt. We all know that
this debt will be inflated away over time – for better or worse. The only real
disagreement is over the speed.

***

My guess is that any new Gold Standard will be
sui generis, and better for it. Let gold will take its place as a third reserve
currency, one that cannot
be devalued, and one that holds the others to account, but not so dominant that
it hitches our collective destinies to the inflationary ups (yes, gold was
highly inflationary after the Conquista) and the deflationary downs of global
mine supply.

***

A third reserve currency is just what America
needs. As Prof Micheal Pettis from Beijing University has argued, holding the
world’s reserve currency is an “exorbitant burden” that the US could do
without.

The Triffin Dilemma – advanced by the Belgian
economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s – suggests that the holder of the
paramount currency faces an inherent contradiction. It must run a structural
trade deficit over time to keep the system afloat, but this will undermine its
own economy. The system self-destructs.

A partial Gold Standard – created by the global
market, and beholden to nobody – is the best of all worlds. It offers a store
of value (though no yield). It acts a balancing force. It is not dominant
enough to smother the system.

Let us have three world currencies, a tripod with
a golden leg. It might even be stable.

How Much Gold Is There?

It’s not confidence-inspiring that CNBC’s senior editor John Carney argues
that it doesn’t matter whether or not the U.S. has the
physical gold it claims to hold.
In fact, many allege that the gold is gone:

If the Western central banks are indeed leasing
out their physical reserves, they would not actually have to disclose the
specific amounts of gold that leave their respective vaults. According to a document
on the European Central Bank’s (ECB) website regarding the statistical
treatment of the Eurosystem’s International Reserves, current reporting
guidelines do not require central banks to differentiate between gold owned
outright versus gold lent out or swapped with another party. The document
states that, “reversible transactions in gold do not have any effect on
the level of monetary gold regardless of the type of transaction (i.e.
gold swaps, repos, deposits or loans), in line with the
recommendations contained in the IMF guidelines.”6 (Emphasis theirs). Under current
reporting guidelines, therefore, central banks are permitted to continue
carrying the entry of physical gold on their balance sheet even if they’ve
swapped it or lent it out entirely. You can see this in the way Western central
banks refer to their gold reserves.

Even Pimco co-CEO Bill Gross says:
When the Fed now writes $85 billion of checks to buy Treasuries and mortgages
every month, they really have nothing in the “bank” to back them. Supposedly
they own a few billion dollars of “gold certificates” that represent a
fairy-tale claim on Ft. Knox’s secret stash, but there’s essentially nothing
there but trust.. When a primary dealer such as J.P. Morgan or
Bank of America sells its Treasuries to the Fed, it gets a “credit” in its
account with the Fed, known as “reserves.” It can spend those reserves for
something else, but then another bank gets a credit for its reserves and so on
and so on. The Fed has told its member banks “Trust me, we will always honor
your reserves,” and so the banks do, and corporations and ordinary citizens
trust the banks, and “the beat goes on,” as Sonny and Cher sang. $54
trillion of credit in the U.S. financial system based upon trusting a central
bank with nothing in the vault to back it up. Amazing!
And given that gold-plated tungsten has turned up all over the world, and
that a top German gold expert found fake gold bars imprinted with official
U.S. markings, Germans may have lost confidence in the trustworthiness of the
Fed. See this, this, this and this.
This may especially be true since the Fed refused
to allow Germans to inspect their own gold stored at the Fed.

Currency War?

The gold repatriation is – without doubt- related to currency.
As Forbes notes:
Officials at the Bundesbank … acknowledged the move is “preemptive” in case
a “currency crisis” hits the European Monetary Union.
***
“No, we have no intention to sell gold,” a Bundesbank spokesman said on the
phone Wednesday, “[the relocation] is in case of a currency crisis.”Reggie Middleton thinks that
Germany’s demand for its gold is part of a currency war.
Jim Rickards has previously said that the Fed had plans to grab Germany
gold:
Jim Rickards has outlined possible plans by the Federal Reserve to
commandeer Germany’s and all foreign depositors of sovereign gold at the New
York Federal Reserve in the event of a dollar and monetary crisis leading to
intensified “currency wars” and the ‘nuclear option’ of a drastic upward
revision of the price of gold and a return to a quasi gold standard is
contemplated by embattled central banks to prevent debt deflation.
Is that one reason that Germany is demanding its gold back now?
China is quietly becoming a gold superpower, and China has long been rumored to
be converting the Yuan to a
gold-backed currency.
The Telegraph’s James Delingpole points out:
Back in the mid-1920s, the head of the German Central Bank, Herr Hjalmar
Schacht, went to New York to see Germany’s gold. However the NY Fed officials
were unable to find the palette of Germany’s gold bullion. The Chairman of the
Federal Reserve, Benjamin Strong was mortified, but to put him at ease Herr
Schacht turned to him and said ‘Never mind, I believe you when you when you say
the gold is there. Even if it weren’t you are good for its replacement.’ (H/T The Real Asset Company)
But that was then and this is now. In the eyes of the Germans – and who can
blame them? – America has lost its mojo to such a degree that it can no longer
be trusted honour its debts, even in the unlikely event that it were
financially capable of doing so. Which is why, following in the footsteps of
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (who may be an idiot but is definitely no fool),
Germany is repatriatriating its gold from the US federal reserve. It will
now be stored in Frankfurt.
***
[Things] may look calm on the surface, but this latest move by the
Bundesbank gives us a pretty good indication that beneath the surface that
serene-seeming swan is paddling for dear life.
If you want a full analysis I recommend this excellent
summary by Jan Skoyles. The scary part is this bit:
Every few months there is a discussion regarding what China are planning on
doing with the gold they both mine and import every year, with many believing
they are hoarding the metal as an insurance against the billions of US Treasury
bonds, notes and bills they hold. Many believe they will issue some kind of
gold-backed currency in the short-term and dump its one trillion dollars’ worth
of US Treasury securities. Whilst, at the moment the US seem to take their monopoly
currency for granted, should the Chinese or anyone else behave in such a
manner, the US will need to respond – most likely with gold, which on its own
it does not have enough of.
Anyone who thinks this isn’t going to happen eventually should read Peter
Schiff’s parable How An Economy
Grows And Why It Crashes. If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.
In other words, Rickards and Skoyles appear to argue that Germany may be
repatriating gold in the first round of musical chairs in which China is
preparing to roll out a gold-backed Yuan. Under this theory, the
rest of the world’s currencies will sink unless their nations’ can scramble to
get their hands on enough gold to lend credibility to their paper.
Postscript: Michael Rivero thinks that the war in Mali is connected:
Mali is one of the world’s largest gold producers. Together with neighboring
Ghana they account for 7-8% of world gold output. That makes them a rich prize
for nations desperate for real physical gold. So, even as Germany started
demanding their gold back from the Bank of France and the New York Federal
Reserve, France (aided by the US) decided to invade Mali to fight “Islamists”
working for “Al Qaeda.” Of course, “Islamists” has become the catch-all label
for people that need to be killed to get them out of the way of the path to
riches, and the people being bombed by France (aided by the US) are not “Al
Qaeda” but Tawariqs, who have been fighting for their independence for 150
years, long before the CIA created “Al Qaeda”. Left to themselves, the Tawariqs
could sell gold to whoever they want for whatever they want, and right now
China can outbid the US and France.

The Pacific Group Ltd., founded by a former PaineWebber Inc. trader, is
converting one-third of its hedge-fund assets into physical gold, betting that
prices will go up as governments print more money to pay off debt.Or that one more nation demanding their gold
back from the New York Fed and getting the stall treatment will trigger a gold
run on the bank and send gold prices right through the roof.

Sweden’s central bank hasn’t carried out any physical checks of its gold
reserves deposited with central banks abroad and relies on the respective
authorities to do so, Dagens Industri reported, citing the Riksbank. Central banks
internationally, from Ireland to Germany and now in Sweden, are being forced to
answer legitimate questions about their gold reserves by concerned citizens.
Swedish gold reserves are 126 metric tonnes and are valued at almost 45
billion Swedish krone.
The Riksbank confirmed that the majority of Swedish gold reserves are
located abroad.
Another respected hedge fund, the Pacific Group, has decided to convert one
third of its hedge-fund assets into physical gold.
The Pacific Group Ltd., which manages over a $100 million worth of assets,
believes that gold will continue to rise as governments print more money to pay
off debt, according to Bloomberg.

HSBC has quietly moved into acquiring large amounts of silver bullion.
The bank has secured another deal to buy silver bars from KGHM which brings
their total purchases of silver from KGHM alone in the last 12 months to $876
million or PLN 3.65 billion.
KGHM is one of the largest producers of silver in the world and is the
second-largest producer of refined silver in the world.

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan has withdrawn the first ton of its physical
gold from JP Morgan vaults, and placed it in their own Central Bank vaults in
Baku.
The Fund has announced it will withdraw all of its physical gold assets from
JP Morgan warehouses in London.
The game of musical chairs known as bullion banking allocated
(rehypothecated) gold storage appears to be rapidly coming to an end.

Barely two weeks after invading Mali with over 2,000 troops of the Foreign
Legion, France has dispatched special forces troops to neighboring Niger to
secure uranium mines run by the French state-owned nuclear power company Areva.
The new French military intervention in northwest Africa was first reported
by the weekly magazine Le Point and confirmed by military sources contacted by
other sections of the French media. Le Point reported that French Defense
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had quickly agreed earlier this week to a
"major innovation" in ordering the Special Forces Command to send
troops to protect the Areva uranium production sites in Imouraren, and 80
kilometers away in Arlit. The magazine noted that this is the first ever
use of the French commandos to directly defend the assets of a corporation.Military protection of corporate assets in
foreign countries: this will set a trend, as long as those countries
being invaded by foreign armies don't have the will or capability to prevent
it.

Yediot Ahronot reported. on Friday that former Iranian intelligence
officials who defected to the West claim that Iran’s underground Fordo uranium
enrichment facility has been almost completely demolished, and hundreds of
staff members are at this moment trapped underground, This has to be the worst
blow to Iran’s nuclear ambitions so far.
WND, an American news website affiliated with the right, reported Friday
that a mysterious explosion has destroyed a significant portion of Iran’s Fordo
nuclear facility – considered Tehran’s most fortified facility.

The Internet has been abuzz over the last couple
of days with an uncorroborated report regarding a huge explosion in the
underground uranium enrichment plant at Fordow in Iran. [...]

The main problem with the report is that no
supporting evidence has appeared so far from any reliable sources to
corroborate it, nor has a statements been released from an official source in
Iran or any other country. All the main Western news organizations with
contacts and sources in the intelligence community have steered well away from
the story. (In Israel, only the tabloid Yedioth Ahronoth, which splashed the
story on the front page of its Sunday edition, took notice of the story.)

Perhaps it’s the identity of the report’s author
which leads to the disbelief: Reza Kahlili, an Iranian exile with an
interesting past who is well known to many reporters covering intelligence and
Iranian affairs. He published the report on the explosion, which apparently
took place on Monday, the eve of the Israeli elections, on World News Daily, a
veteran website with close contacts to the far-right in the United States.
[...]

In a phone-interview with Haaretz (Kahlili used a
voice-distorting device), he insisted that his information was accurate [...]

Unconfirmed
reports floating around multiple outlets
have a major sabotage bombing taking place at Iran’s Fordow enrichment
facility, the underground uranium enrichment site outside of Qom.The
stories say that the bombing happened Monday morning, and incredibly hasn’t
been even touched on by any more reputable outlets, let alone the Iranian
press, nearly a week later. 240 workers are said to be trapped, and Iran
reportedly closed several roads, including the bridge between Qom and Tehran.
None of these reports are confirmed either.
Despite the purely speculative nature of the reports, former Shin Bet chief
Avi Dichter, who is Acting Israeli Defense Minister while Ehud Barak is
overseas, cheered the reports, saying any explosions inside Iran would be “good
news.”
Though US and Israeli saboteurs have repeatedly targeted the nation’s
civilian nuclear program, this would be by far the single largest attack, and
it is hard to imagine that such an incident, particularly timed ahead of
planned P5+1 talks with Iran, would be kept secret for so long.

Any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons is slipping as it battles
armed rebels could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel's vice premier said
on Sunday.The hired
mercenaries in Syria already have chemical arms. Israel is just looking to
escalate the wars to distract the world from their crimes against Palestine.

Iran would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself, a senior
government official was quoted as saying on Saturday, in one of Tehran's most
assertive defenses of its ally yet.
Iran is a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is fighting
a near two-year-long revolt. Tehran has already repeatedly warned the West
against intervening in the conflict against Assad.

"Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm
policies of resistance ... For this reason an attack on Syria would be
considered an attack on Iran and Iran's allies," said Ali Akbar Velayati,
an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Mehr news
agency.
Tehran sees Damascus as part of an axis of opposition to Israeli and Western
influence in the Middle East.I wish to heck this guy hadn't said that: this
statement nearly guarantees an ultimate overt attack against Syria, to which
Iran must respond militarily, giving the US and Israel a casus belli to attack
it.

Ehud Barak is certain the US has plans for surgical strikes against Iran as
a last-ditch measure if Tehran refuses to stop its development of a nuclear
weapons capability.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, which was published over the weekend,
the defense minister was asked if there were any way Israel could go to war
with Iran that did not drag in the US.

"I came into possession of shocking material. The kind of material that
sends you to a psychologist. I have never shown it. Children who were shot.
Piles of bodies of civilians... I came into possession of material about very
grim events relating to the idea that Israel was deliberately 'going crazy.'
Testimonies, images and much more. So many people were killed there."

With more western countries getting indirectly involved in the conflict in
Mali, there’s increasing speculation about their motives. Journalist and
broadcaster Neil Clark told RT, that the intervention has ‘only economic
reasons’.
Several western countries have already offered France, which is to boost its
force to 2,500 soldiers next week, aid in Mali.
The UK is providing logistical air assistance, while the United States is
providing surveillance and other intelligence help.
Washington also announced it will supply transport planes for French forces
and consider sending refueling tankers for French warplanes.

On January 11, France launched the war under the pretext of halting the
advance of fighters in Mali. However, as Paris has stepped up its ground
offensive and aerial strikes in Mali few images of the conflict have come out
of the African country.
French networks TF1 and France Televisions have also sent several teams to
Bamako, but a media blackout on images of the clashes has confined all
journalists to the city.
This comes as French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said the number
of French troops on the ground in the West African country could top the
initially-planned number of 2,500.
“Two thousand five hundred is what was initially announced, maybe that will
be exceeded," Le Drian said in a Saturday television interview.

The terrorist attack in Algeria, which resulted in the death of three
Americans and 34 other hostages, highlights that al Qaeda is “committed to
creating terror" worldwide and that America has "got to fight
back," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Monday.Since it
now known that the "Al Qaeda" that carried out the attack included
Canadians, French, and at least one Mossad agent, are you planning on nuking
France, Canada, and Israel, Leon?

Terror in North Africa: are Westerners pulling the strings? English-speaking
jihadis seen in Mali, as a Canadian is reported to have co-ordinated Algeria
attack … Canada is investigating an allegation by the Algerian Prime Minister
that one of its citizens co-ordinated the terror raid at the Saharan gas plant
in which dozens of hostages were killed.
Westerners, including a man with blond hair and blue eyes, are believed to
have been among the Islamist militants who launched last week’s attack on the
Tigantourine complex near Algeria’s border with Libya. A French jihadist,
previously unknown to authorities, and two Canadians are suspected to have been
involved in the hostage-taking, and reports also claim that a man with a
Western accent was among the extremists who lured terrified gas workers from
their rooms during the hostage crisis. – Guardian

At least five civilians have been killed in a US assassination drone strike
carried out in Afghanistan’s northeastern province of Kunar, Press TV reports.
Villagers say all the victims were civilians and had no links to any
militant group.

According to provincial officials in the eastern Afghan province in
Nuristan, US drones fired multiple missiles against the Kamdish District late
Monday, causing “around 35” casualties, with others reporting at least 14
deaths in the strike. Local officials termed all the slain suspects.
Oddly, NATO officials insisted they had no information about any operations
ongoing in the region, and they declined to speculate whether there was a
strike at all, though not all drone strikes are necessarily coordinated through
NATO.

My Disclaimer:

I present this information in my capacity as a human being, under Common Law, exercising my fundamental God given rights and freedoms. This information represents my private thoughts and beliefs and has been compiled and expressed for educational purposes only. In no way should it be construed as either legal or financial advice. If anyone feels a need to determine the accuracy of this information and the effectiveness of apply any of it, I strongly recommend consulting a competent expert on this subject matter.

Here's a Clue:Look the one place "They" never talk about.Look to your heart, as your competent expert lies within."Seek and you shall find."